The Mystical and the Erotic in the Life and Teachings of Ramakrishna

In a book now marked by both critical acclaim and cross-cultural controversy, Jeffrey J. Kripal explores the life and teachings of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, a nineteenth-century Bengali saint who played a major role in the creation of modern Hinduism. Through extended textual and symbolic analyses of Ramakrishna's censored "secret talk," Kripal demonstrates that the saint's famous ecstatic and visionary experiences were driven by mystico-erotic energies that he neither fully accepted nor understood. The result is a striking new vision of Ramakrishna as a conflicted, homoerotic Tantric mystic that is as complex as it is clear and as sympathetic to the historical Ramakrishna as it is critical of his traditional portraits.

In a substantial new preface to this second edition, Kripal answers his critics, addresses the controversy the book has generated in India, and traces the genealogy of his work in the history of psychoanalytic discourse on mysticism, Hinduism, and Ramakrishna himself. Kali's Child has already proven to be provocative, groundbreaking, and immensely enjoyable.

"Only a few books make such a major contribution to their field that from the moment of publication things are never quite the same again. Kali's Child is such a book."—John Stratton Hawley, History of Religions

Winner of the American Academy of Religion's History of Religions Prize for the Best First Book of 1995

ForewordPreface to the Second EditionPreface to the First EditionA Note on TransliterationList of AbbreviationsIntroduction: Approaching the SecretDefining the Study: Recovering the Text and Revealing the SecretThe Mystical and the EroticRamakrishna's Tantric WorldThe Study's Symbolic Structure: Kali's ChildThe Hindu UnconsciousCh. 1: Kali's Sword: Anxious Desire and the First VisionKali's SwordFrom the Village to the Temple, 1836-1856A Textual Study of Ramakrishna's "Anxious Desire": Discerning a Vocabulary of DesireRamakrishna's "Anxious Desire" in the Eyes of His Contemporaries"Her Sword as His Flute"Ch. 2: Kali as Mother and Lover: Interpreting Ramakrishna's Tantric PracticesKali as Mother and LoverThe Secret Years: Textual ConsiderationsThe Secret Years: The Practices according to the Puranas, 1856-1861 The Secret Years: The Practices according to the Tantras, 1861-1865 The Hero and the ChildCleaving the Bitch in TwoCh. 3: Kali on Top of Siva: Tantra and Vedanta in Ramakrishna's Teachings and Mystical ExperiencesWhy Is Kali on Top of Siva?The Secret Years: From the Practices according to the Vedas to the Jesus State, 1865-1868The Mansion of Fun and Its Tantric FormThe Love-Body of the Goddess"Ramakrishna Paramahamsa"Ch. 4: Kali's Feet: Ramakrishna's Descent into the Forms of ManKali's FeetThe Coming of the Disciples, 1868-1885The Change and the Secret of the Dislocated HandPhallic Love and the Incarnation's Erotic CommunityRamakrishna's Foot: The Sinful Touch of GodRamakrishna ViparitarataCh. 5: Kali's Tongue: Shame, Disgust, and Fear in a Tantric WorldKali's TongueThe Last Days, 1885-1886: The Secret Revealed and ConcealedGauri's QuestionLover-and-GoldThe Secret Door"Bite Your Tongue!"Epilogue: The Fog of BlissConclusion: Analyzing the SecretEmerging from the Fog of Bliss: Defining the SecretSexuality and Mysticism: Realizing the EroticAppendix: Some Historical and Textual Aspects of Ramakrishna's Secret TalkNotesWorks CitedIndex

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